Museum of the Moving Image to Present Martin Scorsese Retrospective

During the next five months, Museum of the Moving Image will present a comprehensive retrospective devoted to the films of Martin Scorsese, in conjunction with a major exhibition about the director's work, life, and passion for cinema. The first part of the retrospective, Martin Scorsese in the 21st Century, features six films directed by Scorsese since 2000, and will be presented in the Museum's Redstone Theater from December 16 through 30, 2016.

The retrospective, which will include all of Scorsese's films, shown in the best available prints, as well as films that have been restored or preserved by the Film Foundation, will also include personal appearances by some of the director's key collaborators. The first of these special programs will be a session with visual effects supervisor Rob Legato, who collaborated with Scorsese on six films. On Sunday, January 15, Legato will present highlights of his work on such films as The Aviator, Hugo, The Wolf of Wall Street, Shutter Island, and The Departed. All of these films will be shown at the Museum in December.

Scorsese's recent films are as remarkable for their ambition as they are for their variety. Gangs of New York (2002), a brutal and magnificent epic about nineteenth-century New York was followed by The Aviator (2004), a sumptuous period film about Howard Hughes with a visual style inspired by 1940s Technicolor spectacles. The Departed (2006) (which earned Scorsese his first Academy Award as Best Director) and Shutter Island (2010) both transcended their roots in conventional genres: the gangster film and suspense thriller. With Hugo (2011), Scorsese embraced 3-D filmmaking with a love letter to the magic of early cinema designed for young audiences. This was followed by The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), the distinctly for-adults-only sex-and-drugs filled epic of financial excess. These lavish cinematic treasures are the works of a master, and worth another look on the big screen just as the great director unveils his latest, Silence, a historical drama about two Christian missionaries in seventeenth-century Japan (a Paramount Pictures release, in theaters December 23).

"Martin Scorsese has been a great American director since the 1970s," said David Schwartz, the Museum's Chief Curator, who organized the retrospective with Associate Film Curator Eric Hynes. "We wanted to start our retrospective with his most recent films, to show that he continues to be a vital force in American cinema."

The film schedule for the retrospective are included below and online at movingimage.us. Unless otherwise noted, tickets are $15 (with discounts for seniors and students and free for Museum members at select levels). Advance tickets available. Ticket purchase includes same-day Museum admission.

Martin Scorsese, the first major exhibition about the director, demonstrates Scorsese's creative and collaborative process. In parallel, it sheds light on how his work is both deeply personal and reflects a profound knowledge and love of cinema. The exhibition, featuring approximately 600 objects, is primarily drawn from Martin Scorsese's private collection, enhanced by items from prominent American and European archives. It was organized by the Deutsche Kinemathek - Museum für Film und Fernsehen. The exhibition will be on view at Museum of the Moving Image from December 11, 2016 through April 23, 2017.

Paramount Pictures is a Major Sponsor of the Martin Scorsese exhibition, with additional support from ARRI, Technicolor, HBO, Delta Air Lines, and Moleskin.

In conjunction with the exhibition and retrospective, the Museum will publish a collection of reviews and essays about Martin Scorsese which were originally published on the Museum's online publication Reverse Shot, and edited by Michael Koresky and Jeff Reichert. The book will be available for purchase in the Museum Shop and as a free PDF download. The essays will continue to be available for online reading at reverseshot.org.

SCHEDULE AND DESCRIPTIONS FOR 'MARTIN SCORSESE IN THE 21ST CENTURY'

Gangs of New York
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 7:00 P.M.
Dir. Martin Scorsese. 2002. 167 mins. 35mm. With Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Liam Neeson, Cameron Diaz. As the ruthless and charismatic Bill the Butcher, Daniel Day-Lewis gives a performance for the ages in Scorsese's magnificent adaptation of Herbert Asbury's 1927 book about lower-Manhattan gang wars and the 1863 draft riots. A pet project for the director for decades, this epic period film was made at the legendary Cinecittà studio in Rome, on spectacular sets designed by Dante Ferretti.

Shutter Island
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 4:00 P.M.
Dir. Martin Scorsese. 2010. 138 mins. 35mm. With Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer. A film that transcends its suspense thriller genre, Shutter Island centers on a U.S. Marshal (DiCaprio) investigating the disappearance of a murderess who has escaped from a hospital for the insane. However, the more he dives into the investigation, the more he becomes immersed in his own insanity. This darkly powerful adaptation of the Dennis Lehane novel contains one of Leonardo DiCaprio's boldest performances.

The Departed
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 7:00 P.M.
Dir. Martin Scorsese. 2006. 151 mins. 35mm. With Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson. Scorsese again elevates genre material, remaking the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs as an Irish mob drama set in Boston. The gripping story focuses on an undercover cop and a mole within the same police unit trying to oust each other. The film won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay, and for the first time in Scorsese's career, Best Director.

The Aviator
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 18, 3:00 P.M.
Dir. Martin Scorsese. 2004. 170 mins. 35mm. With Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett. This biographical epic about movie producer, entrepreneur, and aviation pioneer Howard Hughes is set in the heyday of the Hollywood studio era, and made in the style of a 1940s Technicolor spectacle. This rip-roaring celebration of artistic ambition and craftsmanship is also a quintessentially Scorsese study of obsession and madness.

The Wolf of Wall Street
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 18, 7:00 P.M.
Dir. Martin Scorsese. 2013. 180 mins. 35 mm. With Leonardo DiCaprio, Margot Robbie, Jonah Hill, Matthew McConaughey. Scorsese's carnivalesque for-adults-only chronicle of financial excess is a bawdy and incisive social satire, following real-life investor and scam artist Jordan Belfort (DiCaprio) through his many financial escapades. Filled with sexual excess, drug use, and profanity, it is also a vibrant character study, with DiCaprio at his best. It is also Scorsese's biggest box-office success.

Hugo (in 3-D)
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2:30 p.m.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30, 3:00 P.M.
Dir. Martin Scorsese. 2011. 126 mins. Dolby Digital 3-D. With Asa Butterfield, Sacha Baron Cohen, Ben Kingsley, Chloë Grace Moretz. Martin Scorsese's first feature designed for family audiences is a treat for all lovers of cinema. His adaptation of Brian Selznick's magical graphic novel about the friendship between a young boy and Georges Méliès, one of the inventors of cinema, is a love letter to the art form that uses the new technology of digital 3-D filmmaking to celebrate the birth of movies.

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